It's come to my attention over the past several days that I am perceived as a "bad feminist." Some readers seem to think I am some sort of woman-hater who only values the opinions of dudes. (Those readers are not dudes.) Um, this is really really not the case. But the realization prompted some soul-searching, because I remember a time just over 20 years ago when I felt outlandishly offended by sexism, mostly because of my immersion in the schlock pop culture of my parents' generation. There was, for starters, the lyrics of the Beach Boys song "California Girls," and further, that such a musical act would receive the endorsement of such a distinguished entertainment property as Full House.

"Had I fallen into that New York City long con, the one where you think there is an infinite…
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"They keep their boyfriends warm at night??" I remember whining at my dad (who did something like roll his eyes and say, "Maureen, no one took the Beach Boys seriously until 'Pet Sounds'," as if that was something I should have known.)

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But anyway, in the spirit of nostalgia and slow news days, I started trying to remember other things that used to get me, like, RAGING mad on behalf of womanity. The Good Earth. (Meanwhile, the Good Earth movie, which was full of white actors, was offensive on numerous other levels pertaining to civil rights, but that's another story.) The year our monsignor fired all the female altar servers. My mom ranting about how she never should have taken my dad's fucked up surname. Oh my god, and all old movies. Below, a clip from a 1961 movie musical that STILL TOTALLY STILL MAKES ME WANT TO KILL MYSELF, even as it is also almost hard to look away and years later I ended up using this movie to appease girls I babysat. In Rodgers' & Hammerstein's defense, Nancy Kwan is, at least, legitimately Asian: